A Brit accused of hacking into US military and NASA computers on Friday lost his latest legal bid to avoid extradition to the United States.

Gary McKinnon, who suffers from a form of autism, could spend life in prison if convicted by a US court of gaining access to 97 computers in 2001 and 2002 in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The High Court on Friday rejected his lawyers’ application for a judicial review of a decision last October by then home secretary Jacqui Smith to order his extradition.

McKinnon, 43, says he was only looking for evidence of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) when he hacked into the US Navy and NASA space agency computers.